How to print checks at home

Pick the paper before you pick a font

Home printing fails when the paper and the software disagree. Blank check stock is security paper with nothing personalized on it. You print everything, including the MICR line, so you also need MICR toner or MICR ink and a laser printer is recommended. Pre-printed stock already has your bank and your account line. You only print the payee, the amount, the date, and the memo. The software has to be told which one you bought.

Buy a short pack first. A case of the wrong size is an expensive lesson. US letter is the usual page. Measure one sheet. If the vendor sold you a three-to-a-page business check, the layout in the app has to match that, not a personal wallet check.

Keep the stock in the printer’s bypass tray or a single sheet feeder if the printer has one. A hot fuser and curled security paper jam more often than copy paper. Print one page. Do not load fifty until one page looks right.

Install, then print a test before a real payee

Install OwnChecks on Windows 10 or 11, 64-bit. The installer is per user and does not need an administrator password. The install page covers the Windows warning you may see because the file is unsigned. Your checks, payees and register stay on your PC. Nothing is uploaded.

Open the trial. Add one account. If you are only testing alignment, you can use obviously fake practice numbers and a payee like “VOID TEST”. Do not practice with a live routing number on a page that could leave the house. The public samples on this site use all-zero numbers, Sample Company LLC, and Jane Doe, with a SAMPLE – VOID mark.

Print a free test page to check alignment. In the print dialog, use no scaling, no headers, and no footers. “Fit to page” is how a check drifts a quarter inch and the MICR line misses the clear band. Hold the page over a pre-printed check, or over the vendor’s template, and see whether the amount box and the bottom line sit where they should. Nudge the fields in the app and print again. The trial watermark stays on until you activate, which is what you want while you are still moving boxes.

Ask the bank, then print a real check

Print a free test page to check alignment. Confirm acceptance with your bank before you rely on a check. A test page does not prove bank acceptance. OwnChecks is not affiliated with any bank, and it does not move money. Bring or send a voided test if they will look at one. Some banks are fine with a customer’s own checks. Some want stock from a printer they already process. You will not discover that from a software manual.

When they say yes, enter the real routing number, account number, and the next check number you are actually on. Add the payee. Read the amount in figures and in words before you print. Printing is not payment. The check still has to be delivered and it still has to clear.

After it prints, the register on that PC can store the row. Download a backup. A home PC is one disk failure away from an empty register. It needs the internet only to download it and to activate your key once. Your check data never leaves your PC.

The app, after the test works

If the alignment is acceptable and the bank is not a problem, the license is $50 for the first computer. Extra computers are $15 each. You activate the key once, online. The VOID watermark stops. Later versions are included for as long as we sell it. Your license includes all future versions of OwnChecks released while we continue to sell the product. We may stop selling or updating it at any time; your installed version keeps working.

Home use does not change the limits. Windows only. No mailing service. Email support only. You still buy the stock and the toner. A second computer at the office is a separate $15 license, not a shared login.